What Next?
by LilRed17
Summary: Rory was at a crossroads for years, not knowing which path to take. Now life has taken a sharp turn and she's finally finding her feet again. But how will the new events in her life affect those she loves – and one person in particular?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, guys! **

**I hope you're all doing well. I haven't published anything on here in ages, but I wanted to wait until I was sure I could commit to a long-term story before I wrote anything new. I am so grateful for all the support and all the love you guys have shown me over the years, especially while I was writing my Percabeth story "Hiding in Alleyways". I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who's reviewed, followed me, favourited me and stuck with me through all the ups and downs of my time on FanFiction. I truly appreciate it! **

**Now, without further ado, I am thrilled to introduce a brand-new FanFiction. Titled "What Next?", it is set post-AYITL ("A Year in the Life") in the world of "Gilmore Girls".**

**"Gilmore Girls" is one of my absolute favourite TV shows and I'm so excited to see where this story goes. For those who haven't seen the show or its revival, you may want to watch it. It is available on Netflix, so feel free to binge-watch to your heart's content – beware, it is extremely addictive!**

**And, one final note: please review, review, review! **

**LilRed17 **

* * *

"_Mom?" _

"_Yeah?"_

"_I'm pregnant."_

* * *

A moment of silence. Then…

"Pregnant?"

Lorelai's face was pale. Her champagne was clasped, forgotten, in her hand.

Rory nodded. "Yeah."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm keeping it. Him or her," Rory clarified, the hand in her lap curved slightly around her belly.

"Her," her mother said, decisively.

"Her?"

"Her."

"You know that for a fact, Molly Walker?" Rory raised her eyebrows.

"Uh-huh. I'm Emily Gilmore's daughter, you're Lorelai Gilmore's daughter and she'll be Rory Gilmore's daughter. The Gilmore line must continue," Lorelai told her, seriously.

Rory just laughed. "Okay, Mom. Sure."

Silence reigned for a while. Ice cubes clinked in Lorelai's glass. Rory just waited, staring out at the town, until her mother suddenly said, almost desperately, "So who's the dad?"

"Damn. Not even five minutes," Rory teased. "Disappointing."

Lorelai laughed, but it died after a few seconds. "Seriously though, hon. Who is it? Paul?"

Rory shook her head. "No. I mean…" She paused, then sighed. "I don't actually know who it is. I – well, I have a hunch, but I'm not positive. But it's not Paul." She shrugged. "Does it matter anyway?"

"Kinda. I think I should know if the father of my future–" Lorelai made a face, before continuing "–_grandbaby _is Jay Gatsby or a more civic-minded Sheldon Cooper. Or even Chewbacca."

"Ugh, I'm never going to live that down," Rory groaned, leaning back on her palms.

"Not with me in your life."

"Sure, _Grandma_," she said sarcastically.

Lorelai gasped. Placing her glass next to her, she spread her hands in the air, as if looking at a giant billboard. "_Grandma_," she said, theatrically. After a moment, she shuddered and dropped her hands. "New subject, please."

"I haven't told anyone else yet," Rory admitted. "You're the first person I've told. And could you not–"

"Tell Luke?" Lorelai finished. "I won't, hon. I promise. But you will have to tell him eventually, you know that, right?"

"I know." She sighed. "I'm just worried that Luke might – freak out."

"To Luke, you're still ten years old and making Halloween cat costumes out of tinfoil for Babette and Morey," her mother pointed out. Rory rolled her eyes.

"I did that _once_."

"Luke may turn into the Hulk for a bit once you tell him, but he still loves you. He'll calm down and start giving you unicorn-themed presents for your kid, trust me."

Rory laughed. "I hope so." She sighed, then was quiet for a while. The sun was just rising over the tops of the buildings, throwing out golden rays across the town.

Lorelai reached up and gently knocked on the side of her daughter's head. "Hey. What's going on in there?"

"I'm scared." It came out almost as a whisper. Lorelai smiled sympathetically.

"I know you are."

"I'm really scared. It'll hurt and it'll be gross and I don't even know if I'll be a good mom, and–"

"Honey, calm down. Seriously. Take a breath." Rory stared down at her belly, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. "You'll be fine."

"How do you know?"

"Because I just do," Lorelai said simply. "I know you. You're so far off of being Mommy Dearest, I promise you. I'll help you, and so will Mom, once you tell her. She'll be thrilled."

"She will?" Rory looked at her mother, a hint of desperation in her face. "She won't be disappointed that I don't know who the father is?"

Lorelai shook her head. "I don't think so. You've done so much with your life, kid. You did everything you set out to do. She'll be thrilled to be a great-grandmother." She smirked suddenly. "Great-grandmother. Oh God, please take a photo of her face when you tell her that."

Rory just smiled. "Thanks, Mom."

Lorelai took her daughter's hand. "Anytime." Shooting her a sideways glance, she said, slyly, "We'll have to find you a new drink."

Rory frowned. "Why?"

"Once Luke finds out about this, there won't be a single townsperson who'll give you a cup of coffee until that baby is born."

She cringed. "I don't even want to go there right now." Her mother laughed. Rory bit her lip. "What do you think about the baby? Really?"

"I think if it's what you want, then I'm happy for you. Really."

The two women smiled at each other. As the sun finished rising, Lorelai put her arm around her daughter's shoulders and hugged her to her side.

* * *

**I hope you guys enjoyed that first chapter! I know it's pretty short, but I promise to try and make the next one longer. If you liked it and want to read more, please let me know in the reviews!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, guys! I hope you're all having a great week – I've managed to catch a cold and have spent the last two days feeling miserable at home. However, I have managed to get a few things done, including this chapter. **

**Let me know what you think in the reviews! **

**LilRed17 **

* * *

When he was younger, Jess had always wondered how he'd ended up in his family.

His mother was a crazy Karen Arnold, even if her intentions had mostly been good. His father was absent for the majority of his life. He'd never thought he'd meet anyone who would actually care about him or for him, so he'd gradually tucked that part of himself away until he just didn't care anymore.

Then he'd been sent to Stars Hollow – a town whose residents had obviously all escaped from the nearest loony bin – and to an uncle he'd never met and barely knew. He'd figured that was it. The end. He'd end up in jail, or work in the diner until he was seventy and die of a Kirk-induced stroke.

Then he'd met her.

Rory.

And everything had changed.

Shaking his head, Jess ran a hand through his hair and stared through the windshield, forcing himself to focus on the road.

As he drove through the town, he marvelled at how little everything had changed since his first arrival there, even all these years later. The only differences were subtle ones, like – _was that a sign advertising a sewer system?_

He sighed. Sometimes he really did believe the town was crazy.

Steering his beat-up Corolla over to the curb, he parked it and jumped out of the car. Grabbing his tux from the backseat, he ran across the road to the diner. A 'CLOSED' sign – written in pink sparkly lettering – hung in the window. Jess smirked at what was obviously Lorelai's handiwork, before reaching up above the door and grabbing the spare key. A memory from years ago hit him suddenly – reaching up and grabbing the key in the middle of a freezing night, while thinking his uncle was at his ex-wife's house. Only years later had Lorelai revealed to him that Luke hadn't left straightaway – he'd waited around the corner in his truck to make sure his nephew got inside safely.

The bell rang shrilly above his head as he shoved the door open, shutting it behind him. "Luke!" he yelled.

"Upstairs!" came his uncle's reply. Taking the stairs two at a time, Jess arrived outside the familiar door and pushed it open.

The apartment looked almost identical from the time when he'd lived there, except for the worn blue tablecloth and rug.

"Luke?" he called, dumping his tux over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. His uncle came out of the bathroom, clutching his tie in his hands.

"Hey. How were Liz and TJ?" Luke asked.

"Crazy. I honestly don't know how Doula deals with them on her own." Jess shook his head. "At least when I was growing up, it was just Liz. TJ's a whole other story."

"Don't I know it." His uncle rolled his eyes as Jess sat at the table. "They still coming today?"

"Yeah. Liz told me to tell you she wants to do some sort of vibe-calming ceremony before the actual ceremony. I have no idea why."

Luke shuddered, but nodded. "Good. Remind me I have to give Doula a USB, will you? Lane put new music on it for her. Every time I see her, she says she wants to personally thank Nathaniel Baldwin," he laughed, buttoning up his suit jacket.

"Why?" Jess asked, curiously.

"'Cause he invented headphones back in 1910," Luke grinned. "How else do you think she deals with your mom?"

Jess just laughed. "Wish I'd thought of that. Sometimes books don't work quite as well in warding off unwelcome conversations."

"Come on, we've got to get down to the town square soon. I promised Lorelai I'd make sure Petal doesn't eat any of the decorations."

* * *

Half an hour later, Jess stood in front of the gazebo, hands in the pockets of his tux, surveying the pre-wedding craziness with amusement.

Miss Patty was up the back, organising the flower girls into some semblance of a line, while Taylor simultaneously welcomed guests and handed out food coupons to the Soda Shoppe and the Market. Kirk ran around the square, Petal hot on his heels, yelling at people who got too near to the flower displays, while Lulu ran after Kirk, trying to stop Petal from eating his suit.

Babette was gossiping with Mrs Cassini next to the gazebo, while Morey played a jazz number on the piano, with Lane and Zack accompanying him on the drums and acoustic guitar, respectively. Doula, Steve and Kwan sat in the second row of chairs, headphones on and noses buried in their iPads, while Mrs. Kim sat next to them, making notes on some choral sheet music and blatantly ignoring Liz and TJ, who were in the front row discussing how the 'vibe-calming ceremony' had gone.

Gypsy and Andrew were having an argument – about what, Jess had no idea – and Bootsy was napping next to them, with his feet up on the chair in front. The Reverend and the Rabbi were cracking jokes about God while the Reverend looked over his notes for the ceremony.

Caesar, in charge of the food, had recruited Jess' cousin April as a helper. April had subsequently started rearranging all of the platters of food to mimic an atom's structure, while Caesar was following her around the table, frantically putting all the platters back where they'd been initially.

Jess laughed, partly at the chaos in front of him and partly at what he knew his seventeen-year-old self would have said had he been there to see it.

"Hey, stranger."

Even as he turned with a smile, sadness stabbed at him as he remembered that moment, all those years ago.

"_Rory, they're here," Lorelai called. Jess glanced into the room to his right and saw a girl his age sitting there, typing on a laptop. She turned, brown hair flipping over her shoulder as she glanced at him with a bright blue stare. _

"_Hey." She smiled at him from her desk chair. _

_He blinked and wandered into her room. "Hey." _

"_I'm Rory," she said, in that same cheerful tone. _

"_Yeah, I figured," he muttered, looking around. He hadn't been in many girls' rooms before, but he could already tell this one was different. Turning, he was confronted with a wall of books. "Wow. Aren't we hooked on phonics?" _

"_Oh. I read a lot," she replied, sounding a little embarrassed. He didn't know why she should be – reading was nothing to be ashamed of. He plucked a book off her shelf, one he'd read a million times before. "You read?"_

"_Not much," he shrugged, looking down at the book again. _

He could still see her in his mind's eye – a naïve teenager – even as she stood in front of him, thirty-two years old with shorter hair, dressed in pale blue as the maid-of-honour. Immediately, he knew he'd never be able to remember the dress she wore, but he'd always remember the way she looked.

_Beautiful._

"Hey to you, too." He gestured at the scene in front of them. "Thoughts?"

She just shook her head, grinning. "I grew up here. I've never expected anything different." They both turned to see Kirk tripping over his own – untied – shoelaces before falling headfirst into a bush, Petal leaping in after him and Lulu shrieking at them both. Jess turned to raise an eyebrow at Rory.

She grimaced. At the same time, they both said: "Kirk."

"Everyone, please quiet down!" Reverend Skinner shouted, raising his hands in the air, a Bible clasped in one of them. "Please!"

"Oh, that's my cue! I should probably get over to Miss Patty's before Mom freaks out," Rory said hastily. "See you after!" She waved and hurried away.

"Bye," he murmured, watching her go as the town settled around him.

* * *

**Don't worry – we haven't seen the last of Luke and Lorelai's wedding day. This is only Part 1 – stay tuned for Part 2! If you're liking the story so far, please: review, review, review! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, guys! **

**Sorry I haven't posted in ages, but life's gotten so crazy lately. I have one more exam before the end of the semester and I've been working so much that I haven't had time to write.**

**I hope you all enjoyed the chapter from Jess' perspective – this one is from Rory's. If you have any feedback for me or you want to see more of this story, please leave me a review! **

**Without further ado: enjoy chapter three! **

**LilRed17 **

* * *

Rory arrived at Miss Patty's out of breath. "This is why we don't exercise," she reminded herself, sighing, before smoothing out the skirt of her dress and walking inside.

Her mother sat at a vanity table, fully made-up, in her wedding dress, drinking coffee. No wedding ring sparkled on her left hand – she and Luke had given them back to the reverend early that morning to avoid suspicion.

"Mom!" Rory cried, alarmed. "You can't drink coffee! The dress is white!"

Lorelai rolled her eyes and gestured to herself. "No, it's cream and that's why I'm wearing the bib." And she was – an honest-to-God Red Lobster bib.

"Where on earth did you get that?"

"Kirk," Lorelai beamed. "It's from that trip he and Lulu took to Texas two years ago. I only borrowed it – I have to give it back to him after the ceremony."

"Of course," Rory muttered, sinking onto a chair. "How are you feeling?"

"One hundred percent calm and ten percent caffeinated." Lorelai took another sip of coffee.

"You know that you can only be one hundred percent anything, right?" Rory pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

"Exactly. I'm not even at twenty percent caffeinated yet. I need at least one more cup before we're good to go."

"The ceremony starts in, like, five minutes!"

"Eh, that's plenty of time," Lorelai waved away her daughter's alarm. "So what's it look like out there?"

"Chaos."

"So a normal Stars Hollow day?"

"Yep."

"Excellent. How does Luke look? Nervous?"

"No, I think he's alright," Rory replied, turning her bouquet over in her hands. "I saw Jess, though."

"Oh yeah?" Lorelai stirred her coffee.

"Yeah. He's doing well, I think. He gave me the idea to write the book." Rory smiled to herself, thinking of the progress she'd made with her writing already.

Lorelai glanced out of the open door, then lowered her voice. "And – the other thing?"

All visions of her laptop and the first three chapters vanished from her head. "No. No one knows, except you."

Lorelai pursed her lips, nodding. "Are you going to tell him?"

"Maybe. No. I don't know. I want to tell Luke and Grandma first. I think they deserve to know before anyone else finds out. And Lane. And Paris." Rory shuddered suddenly. "Oh, God – Paris is going to go mental."

Lorelai just laughed sardonically before taking a last sip of her coffee and setting the cup on the table behind her. She pulled the Red Lobster bib off and laid it next to it, before standing up and smoothing her dress down. A tiara sparkled in her dark hair. "Out of ten?"

Rory smiled, standing up. "Twenty. You look gorgeous, Mom."

"What are you two still doing in here?" Emily appeared in the doorway, glaring at them both. "The reverend is waiting and so is everyone else."

"Hi Grandma," Rory chirped, while Lorelai waved at her mother. Emily huffed, before giving her daughter and granddaughter a tiny smile.

"Let's go, kid," Lorelai said cheerfully, picking up her bouquet. "It's time for a wedding."

As Rory watched her mother walk down the aisle and saw Luke's eyes shine as he stared at his bride, she felt beyond happy for them both, but couldn't stop her tumultuous thoughts from distracting her.

_Is he back in London by now? Has he married her yet? Is he happy? Should I have told him?_

Her hand twitched around her bouquet, as if it longed to curve itself over her belly. She forced it to remain still, conscious of everyone's eyes on her and the couple next to her.

Would she be a good mother? The question plagued her and she hated the fact that she couldn't make a pro-con list for it. It was a wait-and-see kind of question, but she wasn't a wait-and-see kind of girl.

All through the ceremony, as she watched her mother get married again and her grandmother smile with pride, then later, at the reception, as she watched Luke's horror when his flashmob danced to _Karma Chameleon_, her mind was filled with thoughts of her baby and its father. Or _her _father, if Lorelai was to be believed.

Rory sat at her table, thinking about her potential daughter and smiling as Luke and Lorelai spun around on the dance floor. She hummed quietly along to the song.

_Now that I've worn out_

_I've worn out the world_

_I'm on my knees in fascination_

_Looking through the night_

_And the moon's never seen me before_

_But I'm reflecting light_

_Give up the ground_

_Under your feet_

_Hold on to nothing for good_

_Turn and run at the mean dogs_

_Chasing you_

_Stand-alone and misunderstood…_

"Wanna go for a walk?"

She looked up. Jess was standing there, hands shoved in his pockets. "Sure. Why?"

He nodded at the gazebo. "Looks like Kirk's about to jump in on vocals for the next song."

Rory winced.

"He just drank three tequila shots. And if I remember correctly, Kirk is a bit of a lightweight."

Rory was on her feet in an instant. "Let's go."

They left quickly, walking through the crowds and making their way, through unspoken agreement, to their usual spot.

Rory sank down on to the bridge, Jess doing the same next to her. Music floated over the water, bouncing in time with the laughter and conversation of the wedding guests.

"Do you remember," she smiled, thinking back, "when you first came to town and came to the Bid-a-Basket festival?"

"And I bid over a hundred bucks on that basket of inedible food?" He laughed and winced at the same time. "Yeah. God, that was a long time ago." He paused. "How's the book going? Three chapters done, right?"

"Yeah, it's basically writing itself at this point. Kind of can't believe how easy it is." She sighed. "I'm really enjoying it and I haven't experienced that with my work for the longest time."

"That's good," Jess nodded. "It's always the ones you enjoy writing that stick."

Rory bit her lip. "Could you be my beta reader? You've already written a novel and you're working at Truncheon – you could tell me if it's any good or if it's all just in my head."

Jess looked at her. "I'd love to." He paused and for a little while, all they could hear was crickets and wedding music. They both cringed at the faint sound of Kirk singing, before Jess continued. "I won't be going back to Philly until late tomorrow afternoon. Would you want to get lunch before I go?"

She smiled. "Sure."

The two friends sat in companionable silence for the next few minutes, both thinking about the secrets they were hiding from the other.


End file.
